If you own a bike, you need a flat-fixing kit. It’s really that simple. Sure, maybe you’ll get lucky and get a flat close to a shop, or the buses will be running on time for once, but even with all that going for you, getting stranded across town will cost you time, money, and precious sanity. You can put together a great kit in less time than it takes to read this guide.

Writer Peter Flax, the former editor-in-chief of Bicycling magazine, rode over 1,000 miles and tested 15 tools for our full-length guide to multi-tools, and he concluded the Topeak Mini 9 is the best for casual cyclists. It’s tiny, it’s light, it’s easier to get some leverage with than other tools that have different designs. It’s not meant for serious wrenching on your bike, but it’s good for on-the-fly adjustments.
Want to be your own grease monkey? This plain-English guidegives you expert tips for keeping your bicycle in great conditionand handling most repairs by yourself. You'll also see how toextend the life of your bike, increase your riding comfort, andimprove safety through routine maintenance. No matter the make orsize of bicycle, this hands-on resource has all the tips youneed!
Do not take your Bike to Kyle's Bike Shop they handled my bike so poorly they can not work on Vintage Schwinn' and the attitude they had if it wasn't a high dollar bike don't expect good service. I had to find my own parts, had to take the bike back twice to get the wheel trued and they ruined my bike it is so scrapped up the Schwinn is gone on the side of the bike. If you care about your bike do not take it here.
Bike Radar gives the Pedro’s levers 4.55 out of five stars and claims they’re the “best out there.” (Can we pause to admire the extra five hundredths of a star the site chose to award it? Very specific.) Aaron Gulley, writing for Outside, states, “I can’t count the number of times I’ve snapped cheap plastic sticks, shredded my hand in the process, stomped around cursing in pain for 10 minutes, and then, insult to injury, been tool-less and unable to get my tire off anyway. That will never happen with Pedro’s.”
We spoke to a broad spectrum of cyclists—from a pro racer to a bike messenger turned mechanic to a touring cyclist who has logged thousands of miles throughout Europe—to find out what items they find indispensable. We sorted through 40 tire levers, almost 30 different kinds of patches, 120 different hand pumps, and 57 seat bags before we narrowed our choices for testing. And then we changed and patched tires more than 50 times, using four different bikes, five different wheels, six different tires, and almost 10 different sizes of tubes. After 96 hours of combined testing, we agree these essentials are some of the best you can buy.
That’s a reality of all hand pumps—it’s really hard to get a tire up to pressure with these things. So another reason Lezyne pumps are so good is because you can actually keep pumping longer than any other brand we tested. With excruciating effort, we could get the Sport Drive HP to pump tires to 90 or 100 psi. It still wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t impossible the way it was with some other models.
The fabric attachment system is low-tech, but that seems to be helpful, as it can adapt to seat rails of different widths. One fancier option you might see on more expensive seat bags is a quick-release mount that you install under your saddle. But those have a fixed width, and therefore can fit under seats with only those exact specs. Brooks saddles, for example, are too wide for these mounts.
Man, if you're starting out and you know you'll need several components for a bag... just get this. It will save you so much time picking everything out that even if you balk at the price (amazing value, by the way) I bet that if you did the math using your hourly wage and the time spent picking everything out and making sure it fits... you'd save a lot of money and a lot of irritation if you just got this. Just get this.

There are two major types of headset- older, threaded headsets that have a quill that drops into the stem of the fork creating an interference connection, and newer threadless headsets that the stem is bolted and clamped on to. Flat handle bars are preferred by off road cyclists who can ride in a more upright postion whilst still having the controls at their fingertips, whereas drop handlebars offer more cycling positions and are favoured by road cyclists who typically spend more time in the saddle. The controls attached to the different styles of bar are operated and maintained in different ways.